What's the single biggest problem with the law making process of the federal government?

[Renew Deal]

I'm referring to legislation; how and what bills are passed. "All of the above" is not an answer.

[PBS Poll-435]

1. Other - Constantly worrying about being reelected

:shrug:

[Oregone]

2. Pleasing a constituency is less worrisome than pleasing one's corporate masters

[PBS Poll-435]

4. Sorry, dear, I don't believe that tripe

Some may be beholden to "Teh Corporations!1!", but most just like being famous, on TV, and in power.

[Oregone]

5. Thats a cute opinion, dear

You can't be famous, on TV, and in power so easily if you aren't scratching some backs

[PBS Poll-435]

7. So easily? It is tough work to stay in Congress.

Constant fund-raising, kissing ugly babies, townhall meetings. Blah blah blah.


Teh Corporations don't scare me so much.

[Oregone]

9. "Teh Corporations don't scare me so much."

As pleasing their constituency? Thats their fuckn job

:rofl:

[PBS Poll-435]

11. Too much emphasis is placed on "Teh Corporations" as opposed to ideology

Or pure incompetence.

[Greyhound]

3. No time to list them all, but I think making laws easier to pass than to repeal was a mistake.

Setting up the Senate (roughly equivalent to the House of Lords) with the power to obstruct the will of the people without a consensus, was another biggie.

[Renew Deal]

6. The senate wasn't set up that way.

The "fillibuster" is a 20th century invention (IIRC). It's not how the founders envisioned it.

[Greyhound]

12. I'm not certain when all the rules were adopted, but anonymous holds

are another systemic deficit. The argument for equality of voices for small states was fine, but making the Senate superior to the House was a bad move taken from the failed system we fought to escape.

We have always had a significant number of loyalists among us.

[Boojatta]

8. Representation by geographical region for issues that are truly national.

An alternative would be having a number of seats (in some cases the number being as few as three) for each area of law or function of government.

A representative could be elected to handle more than one area of law or more than one function of government, in contrast with the situation where each representative represents exactly one specific geographic region on all issues.

[Coyote_Bandit]

10. Corruption, Cronyism, Fraud, Abuse, Lobbyists and Money

are all closely related - and explain most of the problem.

[tkmorris]

13. Too many of those choices are manifestations of the same problem

You have "money", which is of course a problem, in that it is used to pay for "lobbyists", and is also used as the payoff for "fraud and corruption".

In order to get to Congress, and to stay there once in, a politician must spend more time raising funds then they spend actually doing their job. This creates enormous pressure to write legislation which panders specifically to those who have the money they need so desperately. This is patently obvious and I cannot understand how anyone could argue against it, though it is no surprise that those who benefit from this setup try anyway.

Mark my words, the next president elected who isn't named Obama will raise over a BILLION dollars to get there. Think on that. $1,000,000,000. It's madness.

[Cant trust em]

14. Aren't lobbyists just an extension of money?

Corporations can employ armies of lobbyists because they have the money to pay them. Non-profits and community organizations don't have as many lobbyists because they don't have money.

I'm not opposed to lobbyists, I'm opposed to the monied interests that they typically represent.

[Renew Deal]

15. Lobbyists are an extension of influence

When I say money I am referring to the process of raising money for election/re-election. The fix to that is publicly funded elections (and a host of bribery laws).

Lobbyists can be useful if you assume everyone has good intentions of honestly trying to educate congress members. That's not really how it works. There may be people that believe money in politics is fine, but undue influence is problem.